Then & Now #21: St. Anne’s Catholic Church

Our good friend Bob Fretz Jr. over at Fretz Construction has come through again with another set of photos of Houston’s past.

Here’s what Fretz told me:

We had in our archives an aerial photo taken of the campus of St. Anne’s Catholic Church in 1941 (when we completed their Sanctuary), and we asked our current aerial photographer to try and match the same angle (sort of like your “then and now” comparisons).

Funny how there’s always been a service station on the southwest corner of Shepherd and Westheimer.

Fretz Construction

The area today.

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If you haven’t dropped by the Alabama Theater better do it quick. The bookstore there closes Sept. 15. Who knows what will happen to the building after that.

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Houston Police Department : Chronicle file

1940s mugshot of Paul Harold Orgeron, Poe Elementary attacker.

Actually, Tuesday is shaping up to be a pretty grim day when it comes to local history. That day is also the 50th anniversary of the Poe Elementary School bombing that killed six, including the attacker, Paul Harold Orgeron, and his son, Dusty.

10 Responses

There was an article in one of the “weekly” papers that is dropped in my yard about the anniversary of the Poe bombing. I remember that Kolter School was named for a teacher that died but I did not know the circumstances. It was amazing that Poe opened the next day and there was not the counseling that was extended to the students like today. I am not saying that they handled it better just different. Much like how Marvin did the “Roving Mike.” Different times.

I guess those houses behind the church were recently torn down. They’re still showing up on google maps’ street view, as well as the satellite view. Although, I’m not sure if those are the sames houses from the 1941 picture.

I went to Poe in the early 60s when Mrs. Doty was still the principal there. I understand both of her legs were broken in the blast as she ran, while yelling to call the students away, towards the bomber who was sitting on his case as he called the students to come to him. I have always wondered why they didn’t name a school after her. She didn’t die, but she risked herself to try and save her students.

Side story and a little dark humor. A slightly older friend of mine lost the lower part of his leg below the knee in the blast. Years later, as we rode the bus home together from Lanier and he would occasionally loosen his prosthetic leg and, while walking down the aisle of the bus, it would fall off and drop out of his pants leg. It would scare and alarm the non-regulars on the route and we always had a good laugh. He was always remarkably upbeat for a boy caught in a tragedy like the one at Poe.

I am the granddaughter of Custodian Montgomery, one of the heroes who died in the Poe attack fifty years ago on September 15th. Our family will be remembering him tomorrow and visiting the school. We would love to hear the stories of those who remember the incident.

I was 16 at the time. I lived in Washington County. We watched Houston TV, listened to Houston radio and read the Houston papers. It was big news there as well. I think people from all over the country knew about this terrible incident as such things were not common then, and actually are not common today. I also remember the fireworks factory explosion some years earlier.

I was 12 years old the day of the explosion at Poe Elementary and I remember it well. Maybe that was the beginning of my loss of innocence, the beginning of my understanding of the horrors than can exist in our world.

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I too went to St. Anne’s School and remember it just as shown in both photos. Yes, the houses on the north side were there until recently, and I always envied those who could walk to school so quickly! I was forced to walk three hole blocks to school every day. The horror of it all!

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I believe our female PE coach lived in one of those houses, and her name was Ann Aucoin. I don’t know why I remember, but I just do. I had to walk all of three blocks, for eight years.

All three buildings that served as the sanctuary for St. Anne are shown in the 1941 photo. The small T-shaped house facing Shepherd was the original church, and at first was located on the south side of Westheimer near the intersection with Brun. In this photo it was being used as the rectory. Later, it was moved to the west side of the school and used as music and assembly rooms. It was removed/demolished around 1986.

Around 1926 the first permanent sanctuary was built – the other building facing Shepherd. It continued in use after completion of the present sanctuary, first as a gymnasium/auditorium, then as primary classrooms, until the most resent renovation (around 2007) which reoriented the entrance to face Westheimer.